Automatic harmonic recorder



(No Model.)

B. GRAY.

AUTOMATIC HARMONIO RECORDER.

No. 329,386. Patented Oct. 2'7, 1885.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELISHA GRAY, OF HIGHLAND PARK, ILLINOIS.

AUTOMATIC HARMONIC RECORDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 329,386, dated October 27,1885.

Application filed August 1, 1882. Serial No. 68,205. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ELISHA GRAY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Highland Park, in the county of Lake and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Recording Apparatus for Harmonic Telegraphs, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to e1ectro-harmonic telegraphs of the class shown and described in Letters Patent of the United States granted to me July 27, 1875, and respectively numbered 166,095 and 166,096; in Letters Patent granted to me January 16, 1877, numbered 186,340, which was afterwards reissued August 26, 1879, in two divisions, respectively numbered 8,869 and 8,870, and also in a certain application for Letters Patent filed by me February 23, 1875.

In Letters Patent No. 175,971, granted to me April 11,1876, Ihave described and claimed a receiving apparatus adapted to analyze composite electrical vibrations transmitted through a conductor, whereby the receivingoperator is enabled to read and understand the transmitted signals by listening directly to the tone produced by the electrical vibrations upon the analyzer.

My present invention consists in the combination, with an analyzer of this description, which is actuated directly by the electrical vibrations or waves traversing the main line, consisting of a tuned reed or bar and an electro-magnet for throwing the said reed or bar into vibration, of a suitable marking point, stylus, or pen, whereby the said signals may be permanently recorded upon paper.

The invention further comprises certain details in the construction of the mechanism.

The subject-matter claimed will be hereinafter specifically designated.

In the accompanying drawings, which show so much of my improved apparatus as is necessary to illustrate the invention herein claimed, Figure 1 is a plan or top View, and Fig. 2 a side elevation, partly in section, of one of my improved receiving-instruments; and Fig. 3 is a detached view showing the form in which the telegraphic characters are recorded upon the paper.

A represents a vertical base-board of suitable material, to which an electro-magnet, B, of well-known construction, is firmly secured. A vibrating bar or reed, G, preferably of steel, is rigidly secured at one end to the base D, While its free end carries an armature, c, in close proximity to but without touching the poles of the electro-magnet B, as seen in Fig. 1. The reed O is tuned to take up some particular rate of vibration, usually corresponding to the pitch of a particular musical tone. If, now, the electro-magnet B be connected in a main telegraphic circuit by means of the binding-screws w w, in the same manner as one of the analyzers described in my Patent No. 186,340, hereinbefore referred to, and a corre spondingly-rapid series of electrical vibrations be set up in the circuit by means of a suitable transmitter-such, for example, as that shown and described in Letters Patent No. 165,728, of July 20, 1875the reed G will be thrown into vibration, provided the tone transmitted corresponds in pitch with that to which the reed is tuned; otherwise the reed will remain unaffected. If a second analyzer be placed in the same circuit, and tuned to a different pitch, and a second series of electrical vibrations of a pitch corresponding thereto be transmitted, it will throw the second reed into vibration without affecting the first one. The same principle is equally applicable to a still larger number of reeds, and I have found that in practice at least eight different tones or series of vibrations may be simultaneously transmitted through a single conductor and analyzed in this manner at the receiving-station; hence by breaking up the continuous vibration of each transmitter and receiver into signals, according to the arbitrary telegraphic alphabet, as many as eight messages can simultaneously be sent over a single wire as rapidly as each individual operator, can transmit with an ordinary telegraphic key.

The reed 0 consists of a steel bar of rectangular cross-section, the tuning being effected by cutting away two sides near the fixed end thereof, as shown at c in the drawings.

The recording apparatus comprises a strip of paper, h, which is carried forward continuously by means of suitable clock-work (not necessary to be shown in the drawings) pass ICO ing over a revolving roller or drum, H, in the direction indicated by the arrow. The direction of the movement of this strip of paper is perpendicular to the direction of vibration of the reed O.

The marking device which I prefer to employ consists of a tubular siphon-pen, F, preferably of glass, the upper and larger end of which is supported upon an ink-reservoir, E, but which dips into the ink contained in said reservoir, being attached to the reservoir in such a manner as to be capable of swinging freely in a lateral direction. The siphon-pen F tapers to a small point at f, which point rests lightly upon the middle of the paper strip h, which passes beneath it upon the roller H. Upon the end of the reed C is mounted a small clamp, clip, or support, 0, through which the free end of the siphon-pen F passes. The ink in the reservoir E is drawn by the action of the siphon through the tube to the point f, which rests upon the paper h, as shown in Fig. 1. Hence if the paper it continues to advance by the action of the clock-work while the reed 0 remains at rest a continuous straight line will be drawn upon the paper, as

on each side of the normal center line, i, thereby broadening or thickening the normal line,

as shown at j in Fig. 3, forming signals or char- 3 5 acters. The length of the characters thus formed will correspond with the length of time during which the key at the transmittingvstation is depressed; hence it will be understood that whenever the reed C is thus 0 thrown into vibration the line upon the paper it will be broadened and a character formed,

as shown in Fig. 3.

- It is obvious that any convenient'form of tracing or marking point other than a siphon- 5 pen may be employed in the same manner.

I claim as my invention- In a telegraphic receiving-instrument, the combination, substantially as hereinbefore set forth, of a tuned reed or bar, an electro-mag- 50 net actuated or controlled by the main-line current for intermittently throwing said reed or bar into vibration, a marking-point mechanically moved by said reed or bar, and

mechanism for moving a band of paper in a 55 direction perpendicular to the direction of vibration of the marking-point.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto sub; scribed my name this 28th day of July, A. D.

ELISHA GRAY. Vitnesses:

DANIEL W. EDGEOOMB, CHARLES A. TERRY. 

